Data sent back to Earth by NASA’s Perseverance rover after its first attempt to collect a rock sample on Mars shows that no rock was collected during the first drilling.
The rover has 43 titanium sample containers and is exploring Jezero Crater, where it will collect rock and regolith samples for future analysis on Earth. The Perseverance sampling system uses a chisel and hammer drill at the end of a 2-meter robotic arm. The rover telemetry shows that on the first coring attempt, the bit and bit were deployed as planned and the post-processing of the sampling tube was performed properly. But samples could not be taken.
The sampling process is self-contained from start to finish. One of the steps that occurs after the probe is placed in the collection tube is to measure the sample volume. The probe did not detect the expected resistance that it would have if the sample was inside the tube.
Jessica Samuels, Perseverance Ground Mission Leader at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California
Mission Perseverance is now assembling a response team to analyze data. One of the first steps will be to use a WATSON thermal imager (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and Engineering) located at the end of the arm to take close-up images of the wellbore. Once the team has a better understanding of what happened, they can determine the date for the next mission.
Initially, it was assumed that the empty tube is most likely the result of the rock not reacting as we expected. Less likely to be a problem with the sampling system equipment. Over the next few days, the team will spend more time analyzing the data we have, as well as generating some additional diagnostic data to help understand the root cause of this mission outcome.
Jennifer Trosper, Perseverance Project Manager at JPL.
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